Devil's Silence is a game with a long and varied history. Like any establishment, there have been some bumps in the road, but the fact that the game is still around speaks volumes. There is a reason people keep coming back to the game, even 10-15 years later. The camaraderie and competitiveness found on DS is hard to match, anywhere. I hope you enjoy it as well, but please keep in mind; this game is alive. It is ever changing, always evolving and the staff is incredibly responsive. Players ideas are listened to, discussions are had, and changes are made.

Regarding The Community

With all that said… This is an adult mud, and while we've written this (and other) helpfiles, DS is not a mud where very many people will hold your hand. At the end of the day, we are all at war with each other. Expect to be stabbed in the back by the person offering you help. Expect to be flamed at. Expect whining, bitching and moaning. Expect that some dbag is going to blackjack you in Market Square and rob you blind. Keep your wits about you though, and you may just make it…

Creating Your First Character

Devil's Silence is comprised of two character tiers. The first allows you to learn the basics of the game in a no-consequences sandbox. You can choose any class/race you would like, as this is not a permanent choice. We'll get into that later, but for now, you can either pick something that sounds fun, or use a recommended combo based on your experience with muds.

If you've never played a MUD before, your best bet is to try a pure fighter:
Cyclops Warrior
Lizardman Thief

If you are familiar with MUDs and want a "good" levelling combo, Aurora Mage is probably your best bet.

After you've chosen your race and class, you are brought to the skill selection step of character creation. This lets you select the skills and spells your character starts with. This is an important part of second tier, but for first tier, it doesn't matter too much. The important thing to remember is that you should really try to stay under 40 CP (creation points) Staying under 40 will ensure that you keep your levelling curve as low as possible. The more CP you take, the more XP required each level to advance to the next.

However, if you're new to MUDs in general, you might -want- to fill up on CPs. That will give you more time at first tier to get your bearings, and more skills/spells to play around with.

*Your First Few Minutes

The first thing you want to do is put on all your gear ("wear all") and head to the Guildhalls, located down from recall (to get there type "recall temple". Once you reach your trainer you want to practice all of your skills up. Enter the Practice command to see what skills you have available, and then 'practice <skillname>' as many times as it will let you. Do this for all your skills. You can also type 'prac all' to practice all your available skills and spells at one time.

Take a look at 'help area_newbie' for some suggestions on where you can level up. This file will carry you through to the HERO (highest level, 101). However, there are other areas on the MUD where you may want to go adventure, but let's save that for once you are more familiar with mudding and DS itself.

*Combat (or 'How To Not Die')

Combat in Devil's Silence follows simple rules. There are a lot of elements at play though, so while you can get by just fine without knowing the nitty gritty system details, being at least a little familiar with them can give you a huge leg up on the competition. Combat can be broken down into two parts; Rounds and Inputs. Let's look at the first.

Every few seconds, a combat round happens. Any two characters that are in combat with each other will attempt to use their autoattacks against the other. This is calculated by using the attacker's weaponskill, hitroll and a few other factors into account and comparing them to the victim's weaponblock skills (Dodge, Parry, Shield Block, etc)

In between these combat rounds, each character is given the opportunity to input commands. This is where skill and knowledge can come into play. Every combat skill/spell has various effects. Some might just do damage, or disarm your opponent. Some might remove beneficial spells from your opponent, or apply negative effects to them(Buffs and Debuffs are all affects. Currently active ones on you can be seen by typing 'affect.') Some skills even have multiple effects!

In essence, that is the breakdown of the sections of combat. In reality, it's a lot more complicated than that. Here are some important things to remember.

-Sanctuary is the most important affect. It reduces all damage by 50%. If you do not have Sanctuary on, you're doing something wrong. Always keep a supply of potions that grant this spell and remember to quaff them if your Sanctuary buff ever expires.

-Poison reduces strength. A player less than 3 strength cannot wield most weapons. Remember to keep low weight weapons on you, or keep some antidotes handy.

-Every class has a way to "blind" the opponent (Dirt kick for most people, a blinding spell, or the Flaming weapon flag0. This is important versus fighter classes, as if they can't see you, they can't use most of their powerful abilities. It's also a lot easier to get away from someone who's trying to kill you if you manage to blind them first.

-Disease (rotting weapon flag) lowers dexterity. Many melee abilities use dex in their calculations, so keeping penicillin potions ready could be beneficial.

-Weapons and shields can be disarmed. If you are blind, it's very hard to equip weapons again. This can be an effective strategy for many melee classes, as an opponent without a weapon can't parry, meaning more landed autoattacks.

-Daze is a very important part of combat here. There are three types of daze. Skill_daze, Spell_daze and flee_daze. Skill and spell daze prevent you from using your skills and spells at their normal efficacy. If you are dazed, you have a much lower chance of actually landing the skill or spell. Flee daze works in the same way, but only affects your ability to run from a fight.

-Flee is also an important part of fighting. When you know that you're not going to win a fight, whether it be versus a mobile or another player, you can type "flee" to get away from your opponent. Many players are savvy to the mud and the areas, and they really know how to chase. Remember, if you are blind when you flee, you will not know where you're going.

*Your first few levels
Ok, so now you're hopefully a little closer to being ready to start adventuring. The first thing you should do is type 'alias recall recall temple'. This will allow you to recall to the temple to either go north to heal (sleep cot, rest cot, stand cot) and get autobuffs from the healer (although you start stacked with buffs), or go south to Town Center, where all directions start from. You'll want to type 'wear all' to wear all of your equipment. You can also type 'eq all' to see if you're missing any equipment slots. Remember that you'll need to be wearing a weapon in which you have proficiency (e.g. you've practiced that skill such as dagger, mace, etc.). Sleep in the cot to get to full hitpoints/mana/movement.

Wait, what are these? Hitpoints are how much damage you can take. Right now, you're probably sitting at 600 hitpoints. Mana is for casting magic spells. Movement is for how far you can move before you need to rest. You're also sitting at a default prompt that shows <hitpoints mana movement.> You can type 'prompt all' to get a better prompt. If that isn't enough and you want to customize it, you can type 'help prompt' to see your options. Some people choose to color their prompts, but it's up to you. You can see a list of colors by typing 'help color'.

So now you know how a little more about yourself, right? Let's start adventuring. If you don't know where you are, it's ok. Type 'recall temple'…just remember that every time you do this, you're losing movement points. Now, type south. You'll be standing in Town Center. Let's now type 'help area_newbie'. You'll see this:

Alignment is how good, neutral, or evil you are, but really it doesn't make a huge difference in DS. So let's go to Sprite Village. Type 'help area_sprite_village' (you can also shorten this to help area_sprite). You'll see the following:

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[ The Sprite Village ]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Welcome to the Sprite Village. Fun for all is to be had here!
Sprites are very fun loving, yet they also have stringent rules to follow.
The village is largely populated and sprites tend to look at visitors
suspiciously. There is a rumor that a large dragon protects them.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[ The Sprite Village ]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Level Range: 1-30 Builder: Alecca
From Solennir: 10sw2sw2n
Portal: sdwn

This gives you a little information about the area, what the recommended level range is, who built it, and two sets of directions. The "From Solennir" directions are the longer walking directions. If you choose this way, you may run into aggressive mobs that will attack you on sight. Most players choose to use the portals. So type "sprint sdwn". This will take you to a portal room with a portal to Sprite Village. You will see a few other portals there too.

-=[ A Portal Room ]=-
Obvious exits from room 8118:
South - -=[ Western Catacombs ]=-
Obvious doors from room 8118:
None.
[....G...] A Bloody Portal To The Orc Tower is here.
[....G...] A Buzzing Portal To The Sprite Village is here.
[....G...] A Swirling Portal To Atlantis is here.

Type 'enter sprite' and that will take you to the entrance of Sprite Village.

You walk through a Buzzing Portal To The Sprite Village and find yourself somewhere else...
The Path to the Village [Room 101]
Thick forests align the path that has been carved out by countless
footsteps and wagons that have traveled through here over the aeons. It is
rumored that somewhere in the land of the sprites, is a huge treasure, and
luck beyond compare, yet to date, no one has found anything, and has
returned empty handed and riddled with injuries from the minute sprite
weapons.
Obvious exits:
North - The Path to the Village
South - A Well-Used Path
Obvious doors:
None.

If you do not see the exits, like I do, it's because you haven't turned on your autos. You can type 'auto all'. You can also type 'auto' to see a list of automatic abilities. Each of these can be toggled on or off.

Autoassist means that you'll help others if you are grouped with them (grouping means you've followed another player and he or she has added you to his or her group.

Autoexit allows you to see the exits in the room.

Autogold allows you to loot the mobiles that you've killed to get money from their corpses.

Autosac means that you will sacrifice the corpse to the gods, who will reward you with money.

Autosplit means that if you're in a group, you'll automatically split any money with your group members.

Prompt, we've already discussed. If you have prompt toggled to off, you will not see your prompts (I do not suggest doing this!)

Combine means that instead of seeing items in a duplicated list, it will shorten your list. For example, type 'inventory'. You'll see a list of the items you're carrying. If you have combine turned off, you'll see duplicates on other lines. If you have combine on, you'll see the number of unique items you have on each line (i.e. ( 2) a hatch key).

Long flags show spelled out properties on items. If I have long flags turned on, I'll see:

(Glowing)(Humming) a steel ankle cuff

If I have long flags toggled, I'll see:

[....GH..] a steel ankle cuff

To see what other flags mean, type 'help flag'.

Ok, so I digressed a bit - there's just so much to teach you!

Let's get some experience!

If you type 'look', you will see that it's just you in the room. Go north by typing 'n'. If you don't see any thing else but the room descriptions and the exits, type 'n' again. Now you'll see some mobs to fight.

The Path to the Village
Thick forests align the path that has been carved out by countless
footsteps and wagons that have traveled through here over the aeons. It is
rumored that somewhere in the land of the sprites, is a huge treasure, and
luck beyond compare, yet to date, no one has found anything, and has
returned empty handed and riddled with injuries from the minute sprite
weapons.
Obvious exits:
North - Too dark to tell
South - Too dark to tell
A small sprite eyes you suspiciously.
A green sprite is here.
A green sprite is here.
A yellow sprite is here.
A small sprite eyes you suspiciously.
A yellow sprite is here.
A small sprite eyes you suspiciously.

All these sprites are called mobiles, or mobs. Type 'kill sprite', or 'k sprite', or even 'k sp'. Don't be surprised at how many levels you may gain. If you stay at 40 creation points or less, you'll only have about 1000 exp points to level.

k sprite
Your insanity tickles a yellow sprite. (Dam:8)
Your insanity tickles a yellow sprite. (Dam:10)
Your insanity tickles a yellow sprite. (Dam:8)
A yellow sprite is DEAD!!
You receive 19696 experience points.
You raise a level!! The air shimmers, as you feel blessed with good luck, if only for a moment.
Your gain is: 40/640 hp, 117/717 m, 12/592 mv 4/54 prac.
You raise a level!! Your gain is: 33/673 hp, 82/799 m, 42/634 mv 4/58 prac.
You raise a level!! Your gain is: 31/704 hp, 90/889 m, 12/646 mv 4/62 prac.
You raise a level!! Your gain is: 29/733 hp, 107/996 m, 18/664 mv 4/66 prac.
You raise a level!! The air shimmers, as you feel blessed with good luck, if only for a moment.
Your gain is: 36/769 hp, 123/1119 m, 33/697 mv 4/70 prac.
You raise a level!! Your gain is: 35/804 hp, 99/1218 m, 50/747 mv 4/74 prac.
You raise a level!! The air shimmers, as you feel blessed with good luck, if only for a moment.
Your gain is: 35/839 hp, 87/1305 m, 70/817 mv 4/78 prac.
You raise a level!! The air shimmers, as you feel blessed with good luck, if only for a moment.
Your gain is: 38/877 hp, 129/1434 m, 34/851 mv 5/83 prac.
You raise a level!! Your gain is: 26/903 hp, 86/1520 m, 24/875 mv 4/87 prac.
You raise a level!! The air shimmers, as you feel blessed with good luck, if only for a moment.
Your gain is: 37/940 hp, 107/1627 m, 37/912 mv 4/91 prac.
You raise a level!! Your gain is: 31/971 hp, 95/1722 m, 30/942 mv 4/95 prac.
You raise a level!! The air shimmers, as you feel blessed with good luck, if only for a moment.
Your gain is: 35/1006 hp, 101/1823 m, 50/992 mv 5/100 prac.
You raise a level!! Your gain is: 28/1034 hp, 107/1930 m, 38/1030 mv 4/104 prac.
You raise a level!! The air shimmers, as you feel blessed with good luck, if only for a moment.
Your gain is: 40/1074 hp, 98/2028 m, 47/1077 mv 4/108 prac.
You raise a level!! The air shimmers, as you feel blessed with good luck, if only for a moment.
Your gain is: 34/1108 hp, 86/2114 m, 16/1093 mv 4/112 prac.
A yellow sprite splatters blood on your armor.

What is this luck thing? Well it means I made a good roll on my luck, so it gives me more hit points/mana/movement. Yay!

So, now you can keep going and kill more sprites. When you stop getting a lot of experience points, it's time to move to the next area.

This gives you a list of all the areas in the game. To the right of the area is the recommended levels. DISCLAIMER: Just because it says ALL does not mean that it is safe for a new player. So you'll probably want an area with a range starting around 30-40 and going up to about 60. Can you find an area like that? Oh, yeah, and if you want to get rid of that annoying "-=<Hit Return to continue>=-" type 'scroll 0'. Now type 'area' again, isn't that much nicer? Bugbear Lair looks to be about in that range, so type help area_bugbear_lair. Remember to 'recall temple' and go south 's' go get to Town Center for your directions.

Well, hopefully this will get you started. If you still have questions, you can either use the newbie channel or the ask channel. To use those channels, type newbie message or ask message (e.g. newbie how do i find the guildmaster will ask the people who are logged in the following:

[You newbie] how do i find the guildmaster
<1108/1108 635/2114 636/1093> <0 0>
[HINT] The ancient dragon forbears of the realm are said to carry the key to unraveling the creation. The champion who defeat
s them all might gain a prize worthy of a king. For more info read HELP LEGEND_OF_THE_DRAGONS.
<1108/1108 640/2114 644/1093> <0 0>
[Katauk newbie] from recall go down
<1108/1108 640/2114 644/1093> <0 0>
(CH) [Drogon newbie] recal d

Thank you to Katauk and Drogon for answering! But you see how that works? Oh yeah, what's that [HINT] thing? Well, that appears on each tick (basically a mud minute). Hints are there to help you get more information. If you type 'help hint', you'll get a list of all the hints:

help hint
===========================================================================
Here is a list with all the various HINTS:
AUTOALL will allow you to turn on all your autos with one command. Autos
allow your character to automatically perform some commands. Type AUTO for
a list of these.
The backup command will save a copy of your pfile. Help backup for more
details.
SHOWCLASS will show you a listing of skills & spells a class gets.
This is a very mature (adult-themed) mud, and not an easy one to start on.
Don't expect friendliness at the start. You have to prove yourself here.
SHOWSKILL will show you a listing of skills and which classes/levels get it.
Please, please, read HELP PARADOX!
The auction system is explained in HELP AUCTION.
Toggling NOFOL will keep people from following you. (Make sure it's off if
you don't want people following you.)
Help files for areas are listed under HELP AREA_AREA_NAME. Skills: HELP
SKILL_SKILL_NAME. Spells: HELP SPELL_SPELL_NAME.
CLAN LIST will give you a list of clans. ROSTER CLANNAME will give you a
roster of active members.
Type SCORE to see a list of your stats. (SCORE2, SCORE3, SCORE4, SCORE5 have
alternate color schemes.)
To become a second tier character, you have to level to 101, then type
reroll twice.
When you die your corpse stays in the room you died in. The taxidermist
in Solennir (2ws) will recover your corpse for a price.
Shop prices are listed in silver. HELP MONEY will give more information
on the economy.
The WORTH command will tell you how much money you are carrying, how much
is in the bank, and your experience to level.
HELP CLASS gives you a list of first tier classes. HELP TIER will give a
list of all of them.
HELP RULES - read it, we are very strict about rule breaking.
Player Kill starts at level 20. PK range is +/- 15. During a paradox, the
pkill range is +/- 50.
HELP PROMPT will give you the syntax to change your prompt around.
The Questmaster is in Solennir (5es from the Town Center).
The Guild Hall, where you can train, is located down from recall.
HELP NEWBIE gives you some information on mudding and Devil's Silence.
WORTH will show you how much money you have (and how much experience you
need to level).
To get directions to areas, type HELP AREA_AREA_NAME. All directions start
from Solennir's Town Center.
Be sure to read HELP CHANNELS.
HELP CLASSES will give you a list of the classes of Devil's Silence.
Some doors may be locked and closed. UNLOCK <DIRECTION> and OPEN <DIRECTION>
will unlock and open the doors.
HELP NOTE will show you how to read and post notes and how to use other
note boards.
To see the obvious exits in a room, type 'EXITS'.
Don't rush blindly into fights. Use the CONSIDER command to compare yourself
to your enemies. However, be wary, some enemies will attack on sight.
In order to leave a fight before it is over, use the FLEE command.
The INVENTORY command will allow you to see what you are carrying.
In order to heal faster, you should sleep in the cots in the Temple of
Solennir (north of recall).
HELP BUY will show you the commands associated with buying objects from
shopkeepers.
The quickest way to get to Solennir is to recall to it. Type RECALL
TEMPLE to get there. See HELP RECALL.
The SPRINT command allows you to input several directions at once.
HELP CONNECT gives instructions on how to connect two objects in order
to create one.
INFO <GROUPNAME> will give you a list of all the spells and skills in
a group. (INFO COMBAT or INFO BATTLE MAGIC)
CLASS <GROUPNAME> will give you a list of spells in a group which are
available to your class.
The ancient dragon forbears of the realm are said to carry the key to
unraveling the creation. The champion who defeats them all might gain a
prize worthy of a king. For more info read HELP LEGEND_OF_THE_DRAGONS.
Fables from across the realms tell of a time where eight guardians
tried to become mightier than their god, but failed. Those who seek
to purify the souls will be granted a divine power. See HELP
CORRUPTED_SOULS.
Changes are posted in the changeboard or in updates.
To turn off this channel type 'NOHINT'. Read help hint first.
===========================================================================

Most people keep the hint channel on so that they know when a tick has happened. This can be important for your buffs (or debuffs). To know what you're affected by, type 'affects'

You'll see if it's a skill or a spell, the name, what it modifies, and for how long. If you're close to 0 for your buffs, and you have enough money (which you should from autogold and autosac), you can type 'heal renewal' at the healer, Jaelen (one north of the recall point), and she'll renew your buffs.